Conciliation talks in the Guinness dispute, which begin this morning at the Labour Relations Commission, will be watched anxiously by the State's 12,000 publicans as stocks of beer reach critical levels in the run-up to strike action scheduled for Thursday.
Supplies of Guinness, Smith wicks, Harp, Carlsberg and Budweiser are likely to run out very quickly in the event of a strike.
A spokesman for Guinness, Mr Pat Barry, said that production would continue until Thursday.
"Admittedly, with a strike looming, we can't just switch off production. There has to be an orderly withdrawal, and we're currently going through the process of that," he said.
Senior managers in Dublin are believed to have been told last week that Mr Tom Ness, Guinness's London-based supply director, would be on holiday this week.
Mr Ness's office at the Park Royal Brewery confirmed yesterday that he was on leave for the next two weeks.
Mr Barry insisted that there was no direct link between Mr Ness taking leave and the threatened strike action.
The supply director has overall responsibility for Guinness outlets in Europe, including Ireland, and "comes backwards and forwards every so often", Mr Barry said.
If conciliation does not succeed and picketing begins on Thursday, deliveries will cease immediately. About half of the Guinness delivery fleet is owned and operated by the company.
Some 25 per cent of supplies are carried by CIE, whose workers are unlikely to pass pickets.
Representatives of the Joint Union Forum, the umbrella body for the five unions in the dispute, as well as management responded positively yesterday to an invitation from the chief executive of the LRC, Mr Kieran Mulvey, and agreed to attend conciliation talks at 10 a.m. today.
The Guinness Staff Union, which represents about 800 technical, supervisory and administrative staff, will not attend these talks as its members have not served strike notice.
Unlike the other Guinness unions - SIPTU, the ATGWU and the three craft unions, TEEU, AEEU and UCATT - the Guinness Staff Union agreed to the company's decision to close Dundalk Packaging with the loss of 150 jobs and has opted to negotiate severance terms with management in its own right.